Johanna Franchetti Mardirosian

Johanna Franchetti Mardirosian

Johanna Franchetti Mardirosian, 68, who worked with her husband in their architectural firm, died of complications of multiple sclerosis Feb. 10 at her home in McLean.

Mrs. Mardirosian did research and planning for client museums of the Potomac Group architectural firm. She worked on interactive projects for the Museum of Westward Expansion in St. Louis, the National Visitor Bicentennial project at Union Station, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson and the Virginia Living Museum in Newport News.

She was born in Munich less than a month after Kristallnacht, the daughter of an American mother and an Italian Jewish father, the composer Arnoldo Franchetti. The family lived in hiding in Sweden and in northern Italy during World War II. After moving to the United States in 1948, she played concert piano and attended Smith College and the University of Connecticut. She spoke five languages: Swedish, Italian, German, English and Ladin, a Romance language spoken in the Dolomite mountains in Italy.

She married in 1960 and moved to the Washington area in 1967.

Mrs. Mardirosian, who was semi-retired, enjoyed reading, concertgoing and writing letters. She wrote a memoir based on her war experiences, her mother's journals and her early years in the United States.

Survivors include her husband of 46 years, Aram Mardirosian of McLean; three children, Amanda McCarthy of Pacific Palisades, Calif., John Mardirosian of Greystones, Ireland and Katharine Mardirosian of McLean; and seven grandchildren.

(testo da http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/21/AR2...)

foto da https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/103587/memorial-search?firstNam..., https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/103587/memorial-search?firstNam...